Saturday, May 03, 2008

I ended up with an extremely respectable 4½ out of 7 today, which while admittedly not at the dizzy heights of last year's performance, is a definite step in the right direction. I might have left it a bit late to seriously challenge for the BGP (looks like being a close contest between David Beck and Iain Barrass this year), but I'm aiming to continue improving as time goes on.

Also, I've had too much to drink considering I need to be up early tomorrow morning to run a memory competition, and I probably should go to bed.

Friday, May 02, 2008

This hotel would be slightly closer to the city centre if you didn't have to go a long way round to get over the river. Still, it does have wireless internet in my room, even though it isn't supposed to - the wi-fi is officially only in the conference rooms.

So, othello tomorrow, memory on Sunday. I've got a big pile of brown envelopes containing more numbers, words, faces, dates and images than anyone could ever hope to memorise in the time allowed - enough for twenty competitors as long as precisely fifteen of them speak English, three speak German and two speak Norwegian. I'm not expecting more than twelve people to turn up, but it'd be nice to have more. Still time to come along, if you're in Cambridge this weekend!

With any luck, talking to people about memory will get me all fired up to practice for Derby, Germany, Bahrain and anywhere else I might get to test my memory later this year. I'm still looking for that elusive motivation.

As for othello, this was the one I did really well in last year. Can I do it again? Probably not. I've been playing better on the internet just lately, but I don't think I'm in what for me qualifies as good form. Still, I'm more optimistic than I have been going into the last couple of tournaments.

Oh, and in the field of real life, I've got another interview on Tuesday, this one in Tamworth, for another cool-sounding job. Wish me luck!

Thursday, May 01, 2008

Well, you would, but you'd be bored with it. So I'll spare you the tiresome details and just tell you I'm going to bed. And I'll see you (in a manner of speaking) either tomorrow, or when I get back from Cambridge on Monday, depending on internet access over the weekend.

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

I'd forgotten just how long it takes to create all the memorisation papers and associated paraphernalia for a memory competition. I thought I could just wrap everything up quickly today and be all ready to lug everything down to Cambridge on Friday, but instead I've been messing around with things all day, keeping on finding new things that needed to be done... it's hard work, I tells ya. Still, now at least there's no danger of getting to the day itself without something vitally important. I've made a checklist and everything.

See you there on Sunday, everyone! Or on Saturday if you're an othello player instead of a memoriser. Or not at all if you're neither. In which case shame on you!

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

But this did lead to an exciting voyage of discovery deep down to the bottom of my Big Box Of Miscellaneous Junk, looking for my spare pair. The following interesting things turned out to be in it:

Two old, broken pairs of glassesAn old, broken pair of prescription sunglassesThree old Beanos from 2000A broken bike lockA Birmingham A-Z that I don't remember buying or ever usingVarious medals and nametags from various MSOsA few handwritten pages of The Adventures Of Jayce And AlexA Simpsons jigsaw, still wrapped in cellophane, which must have been a birthday or Christmas presentA 2001 Simpsons calendarMy collection of old coins that some relative, possibly Auntie Cath, sent me out of the blue many years agoA box of 3½" floppy disks, mostly blank, one containing my work and an assortment of computer games from when I was at Holland Training back in 1995/6My spare pair of glasses

This last is particularly interesting, because a) I didn't expect to find them in the place where I knew I'd left them - my posessions are rarely so well organised - and b) because they were somehow right down at the bottom of the Big Box, underneath all that more ancient stuff, even though I only bought them less than three years ago. Still, I've found them now, and apart from a vague worry that they make me look somewhat nerdier than my other pair and a slight disorientation caused by the fact that my other pair were a little bent out of shape and these ones aren't, everything is good.

Monday, April 28, 2008

Now I come to look at it, that quote is much too long to use as a blog title. Oh well, never mind. I just wanted to observe that an election is coming and the Labour and Lib Dem candidates have been pestering everyone in the area with newsletters stressing why they're great or why the others are evil incarnate. Without wanting to get all political, I really would rather they didn't waste resources and money on this kind of thing. Judging by the newsletters, their policies are as identical as their surnames (the Labour candidate is Shiraz Khan, the Lib Dem is Farhatullah Khan. Possibly they're brothers.)

I think the Conservatives should take advantage of this similarity - they don't bother to campaign in this ward, as a rule, knowing a lost cause when they see one, but they should go out of their way to appeal to those who aren't necessarily in tune with what the other candidates are supporting. The Derby congestion charge, for instance - I think it would make a refreshing change to have a candidate who says "Yes, Derby residents WILL have to pay lots and lots of money!" That way, those of us without cars will be able to laugh at everyone else!

Hey, I like this idea. I might run for the council myself, and go out of my way to offend and horrify everyone! Bulldoze the Arboretum! Encourage crime and drugs! Turn off the streetlights!

Sunday, April 27, 2008

Since I'm too lazy to write anything interesting or entertaining tonight, I think I'll just mention that I'm cheering for Stephen Hendry in the snooker. I used to routinely cheer for Steve Davis, but perhaps I'm getting more up-to-date nowadays.

It's still an ambition of mine to become a great snooker player some day. It's sort of on the back burner of my things-to-do list, because a prerequisite of the plan is to become a millionaire and own a house big enough to fit a snooker table in. But I'm sure it'll happen some day. After all, how hard can it be to knock a few balls around?